#2 on Adresseavisen’s 10 best fiction books of 2023 list
“The Day That Nils Vik Died is a beautiful, warm, and touching story about the simple and intimate aspects that life consists of, while also offering significant portrayals of friendship, love, and death. It is also a tribute to small communities in transition and sheds light on people who are rarely celebrated. It is a novel about old age and death, but also about what makes life worth living.”
Brage Jury, nomination announcement
“A warm and poignant declaration of love for a bygone era. For a lifetime, the main character has been a ferryman, bringing people and livestock across the fjord. A captivating novel about life, death, and a lifelong love affair.”
Aftenposten, the 10 best books of 2023
“Has a more beautiful Norwegian novel about death been written? No.”
Stein Roll, Adresseavisen, Most powerful read of 2023
“A decade after his novel about the Clash, Burn the House Down, Grytten is finally back in LP format, with some of the best writing he has ever done.”
Jonas Bals, Klassekampen, the 3 best books of 2023
“A luminous novel about an ordinary life … Grytten writes captivatingly about life and death in a novel that has been nominated for two awards … the ferryman motif is perfectly balanced between the metaphorical and the concrete… a warm and poignant declaration of love for a time gone by… His longing for his wife is the driving force in a novel that elevates an entirely ordinary life in an extraordinarily captivating manner… a beautiful novel about an entirely ordinary man”
Anne Merethe K. Prinos, Aftenposten
“What a comeback! The prose painter Frode Grytten finds his right material. The result is literary gold … Is it sad? No. It’s bittersweet of course, but above all, this is a both poetic, rich and quite surprising novel. Frode Grytten is at his very best when he writes likes this: Short, concise, rhythmic sentences. Little is explained, but there is plenty of tension in the sober prose.”
Sindre Hovdenakk, VG, 6/6 stars
“The Day That Nils Vik Died is an usentimental, loving tribute to an everyday hero of the fjords. It’s also Frode Grytten’s first novel in 10 years … The Day Nils Vik Died is a book worth waiting for. With the author’s finest tags: Beautiful, precise prose sprinkled with dry humor and the salty taste of ruggedness and tenderness.”
Turid Larsen, Dagsavisen
“A beautiful journey towards death … an exceptionally beautiful portrait of love … A ferry logbook can’t contain everything, but Frode Grytten’s novel contains a powerful reading experience”
Andreas Wiese, Dagbladet, 5/6 stars
“The portrait of the novel’s main character is the triumph of the novel. Grytten simply makes me believe in Nils Vik, in everything he feels, says, and does… It’s not often that you encounter such fully fleshed-out literary characters in contemporary Norwegian literature”
Erlend Liisberg, Bergens Tidende, 5/6 stars
